Wow, I got a whole lot more respect for the drivers with that DRS wing now…

If you open it a split-second too soon (when your wheels are not straight yet) it’s like you’re driving on ice! Definitely have to learn a lot getting the most out of DRS and KERS, but so far an amazing experience again. Just got pole in Australia (Force India) and finished 2nd in the race (professional level).

Started with Force India, replacing Di Resta, on expert mode. Really difficult compared to 2010, especially trying to know where to use KERS and DRS to their best effect. Ended up about 1 sec off the pace of Sutil during practice in Melbourne. Qualifying was even worse, only manged to get 18th position, but at least 1 spot behind Sutil – seems we are both struggling with the Force India car.

Struggled in Quali to 18th place but dominated the start moving up to 6th, I then picked off the rest of the field throughout the lap and was in 1st before crossing the line, had a easy race after that pitting on lap 6 to come out in second behind Kobayashi who had yet to pit.

Finished in 1st with Vettel and Petrov behind me

MALAYSIA – WET

Even worse quali this time round, qualified last but again had a big surge through the field to get to 8th by the first corner where I was lucky to not end up in the wall as Massa dived in rather early, much harder getting through the field this time but I managed to secure second by the end of the lap where I stayed for 5 laps until a spin dropped me down to 5th, unfortunately Alonso and DiResta caught me and I dropped down to 7th by the end of the race.

Am now 2nd in both drivers and constructors with Ruebens not finishing in the points in either race

Same here, since I’m new to the game (only started playing last year’s version a few days ago, and I haven’t played any racing games in a long time) I prefer single races or time trials, so that I get used to driving.

I have two questions: are there three parts of qualy in F1 2011? I played it in F1 2010, but in F1 2011 I was 4th in Q1 and that was end of qualy. Could it be because of me choosing short weekend?

Also, I drove Singapore, Barcelona and Nurburgring first, then I tried Monaco and the steering was crazy – I turned my wheel by 90 degrees and the game turned it by 180 percent, so it was very hard to drive with such a sensitive response. Can that be changed?

It could also be down to different cars, as I drove Renault, Red Bull, Virgin and Force India at other tracks, then McLaren in Monaco.

I gotta say, I wasn’t expecting this game to be as difficult as it is. I started out my career in the HRT replacing Karthikeyan (The HANS device is painted in the Indian Flag Colors, something I think should have been changed if the driver is of say, Polish nationality. But obviously due to licensing….)

Australia came around and I qualified 24th, 5 tenths of a second off of Glock. This was the first time I said “Finally they got something right!” This was of course on Expert difficulty and with no aids on. The race was ok and I got up to 21st, but then after contact with Trulli I lost a part of the wing. I had no clue how to change the settings so that they didn’t replace my nose, but they did anyway and I lost all the positions again. Then, my engineer informed me that my DRS was “Offline”. Great. So I finished 24th for the first time in any codemasters game haha.

Then Came Malaysia, and finally I managed 21st, ahead of Glock and the two lotuses. My start was amazing as it was raining and Massa spun, slowing down the whole field. This left me in…. 8th! The race was shrotened to 3 laps (I guess it was red flagged cause it was set up for 20% race distance). On the first lap I dropped to 10th, the second, 13th, and finally on the last lap Perez beat me to the line by about .05 of a second. Finally success at 14th, but I instantly felt how difficult it would be driving the HRT. The car is very slow compared to other cars, and I had to go very deffnsive to keep my position against the very aggressive AI (Which btw are finally life like, although they all seem to be big Hamilton fans….).

So in all, I’m 19th in the standings, and I’m very very pleased with the game. The physics feel great (although not full on sim), and although there are a few weird problems (The back breaks away on the fastest turns, you can ride the kerbs as if they weren’t even there, and the breaks lock up oddly, like the outside wheel locked before the inside one a couple of times… weird) the overall product is fantastic, a huge upgrade from F1 2010.

I also started at Force India but picked Normal difficulty (the 2nd one) while i get used to the new game. Put the traction control down to medium and it’s pretty slippy. Australia was a nightmare!! Eventually managed to get the car round the track but qualified mid pack, got up the pecking order a bit but then screwed it all up and finished just ahead of the Lotuses as I kept spinning.

Come Malasia though i’d gotten the hang of things and qualified 1st, 4 seconds ahead of Hamilton. Got to the first corner in about 5th (The Force india really can’t keep up with the main guys once they get going) but got back to 1st by the end of the lap. Pulled away for a few laps then inevitably spun again and got put down to 4th. Don’t know how i’m going to deal with no traction control but baby steps… Got back to the front by overtaking both Webber & Vettel at the 1st corner but got a 10 second penalty since i cut the corner to avoid a collision (amd refused to give the places back) and ended 4th.

China was easy peasy, 1st in every session and won by 15 seconds.

Just finished Turkey. I hate turn 8!! Never did before but the tendency of the cars to drift into a spin at 150 is annoying. Qualified 5th, finished 18th a minute behind. I reckon I made it round Turn 8 without spinning about 5 times in the entire grand prix (out of 12 laps).

A few random things i’ve noticed though. In Melbourne, Vettel was behind me at one point and he crashed into me and took off his front wing. He was just as fast without it. In Malasia I also took off my own front wing and the handling of the car and my times were the same. not sure if this is because it’s on the medium difficulty or whether they’ve just messed up the damage model. Another fun thing about melbourne was when I rolled the car (twice) and then kept on going on my merry way without any damage. Good Times!!

In my season Alonso is winning, then Webber, Massa, Hamilton, Me, Vettel in 6th, Petrov in 7th and then Button. If the real season had started like that the championship might still be wide open at this stage!

I’ve just fired mine up and I’m in the middle of Melbourne practice. I’m driving for Williams, and my god, the handling is so much better! I haven’t got any aids on yet it still feels like I can push. With 2010 you were either on rails or it was impossible in my opinion. I’m going to have a lot of fun with this.